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Has anyone sailed on the Miracle recently?


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We just booked a 15-day Mediterranean cruise on the Miracle this morning for August 2025.  There were literally 2 cabins left on the whole ship so I panicked and booked it.  Now I am reading reviews and the ones on tripadvisor.com are less than stellar.  Am I going to regret this decision?  It has a fantastic itinerary, I'm just not sure about it being an older ship.

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You can go to the carnival forum here and there is a drop-down to see posts about a particular ship - choose Miracle, and you'll find lots of information.

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If you are into newer ships and the specialty dining, roller coasters, rope courses etc then the Miracle may not be for you. It only has the steakhouse and Bonsai sushi for extra restaurants. The Miracle will be freshly out of dry dock when you cruise so it should be in decent shape. Having said that, the Miracle has gaudy decor in the eyes of some( I love it) but there is not a crowd problem on this class of ship. It has the best space to passenger ratio in the fleet. I mostly book Spirit class ships because of all of the above. 

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, n6uqqq said:

If you are into newer ships and the specialty dining, roller coasters, rope courses etc then the Miracle may not be for you. It only has the steakhouse and Bonsai sushi for extra restaurants. The Miracle will be freshly out of dry dock when you cruise so it should be in decent shape. Having said that, the Miracle has gaudy decor in the eyes of some( I love it) but there is not a crowd problem on this class of ship. It has the best space to passenger ratio in the fleet. I mostly book Spirit class ships because of all of the above. 

Agree with all of the above.  We were on Miracle last October and loved it!  Loved the decor and the less crowded feel!  We had cruised on Celebrity Reflection just prior to that and everything felt so stiff and boring.  Oh and our cabin steward on the Miracle was the best one we have had on any cruise!

Edited by HangryGrl
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We're booked on her for December 2025 and when researching, found that although she's older, she feels less crowded and has more public spaces.  After our last cruise, that was a major selling point for me!  I'm excited for her, even if she's older and less glamorous than the newer ships. 

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18 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

If you are into newer ships and the specialty dining, roller coasters, rope courses etc then the Miracle may not be for you. It only has the steakhouse and Bonsai sushi for extra restaurants. The Miracle will be freshly out of dry dock when you cruise so it should be in decent shape. Having said that, the Miracle has gaudy decor in the eyes of some( I love it) but there is not a crowd problem on this class of ship. It has the best space to passenger ratio in the fleet. I mostly book Spirit class ships because of all of the above. 

Well, I wouldn't be caught dead on a ropes course, so we are good there!  Thanks for your insight--it was very helpful!  Gaudy decor doesn't bother me at all, and I am happy to hear that there is a lot of public space.  It should be an interesting cruise.  There is one ocean view cabin left, and a few insides.  Otherwise it is completely sold out 14 months in advance!

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We sailed one of the last West Coast Mexico cruises before she sailed up to Alaska for the season.  We thought the gaudy decor in the public areas was fun.  

 

And as others have mentioned the space to passenger ratio is top notch.  We were convinced we were sailing 80% full because it felt so empty compared to the Radiance.  Nope, checked with the steward, we were over 💯 % full.  (Cabins holding 3 or 4 contribute to that over 💯)

 

We would love to sail her again, but she's left us 😭.

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Posted (edited)
21 hours ago, Jeafl said:

We just booked a 15-day Mediterranean cruise on the Miracle this morning for August 2025.  There were literally 2 cabins left on the whole ship so I panicked and booked it.  Now I am reading reviews and the ones on tripadvisor.com are less than stellar.  Am I going to regret this decision?  It has a fantastic itinerary, I'm just not sure about it being an older ship.

We sailed her LA-Hawaii RT last year. It was our 1st Carnival cruise.

Heard lots of comments that we wouldn't like it after most other mainstream lines.

We loved it!

It is smaller, but still plenty to do, food was good--truly, nothing to complain about!

One note--we did watch a You Tube ship tour video & were glad we did. The strong theming might have been a bit more shocking had we not seen the video & expected it. 

Edited by KKB
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Posted (edited)

Here is a video from 2022 ship tour of the Miracle. This guy did a really good job because he gives you a first person video angle so its like being on the ship. 

 

 

Edited by n6uqqq
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We sailed on the Miracle to Alaska last year and enjoyed the ship.  

 

As some have said, it is an old Farcus design ship but fun!  It definetly did not feel crowded at all.

 

We also love the Excel ships (been on Celebration 4x and going on Mardi Gras in January)

 

We are booked for a northern Europe sailing June, 2025 for 12 days on the Miracle.

 

Go with an open mind and enjoy your cruise!

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21 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

Here is a video from 2022 ship tour of the Miracle. This guy did a really good job because he gives you a first person video angle so its like being on the ship. 

 

 

Excellent video!  I kind of liked the decor!  We were just on the Venezia and the decor, although nice, was kind of boring.

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Posted (edited)

We just got off the Miracle about a Month ago. It's still my favorite. Your experience will be based on your preferences. If you have cruised a bunch exclusively on Vista or newer class ships, and loved them, Miracle may be a tad of a shock. It has the aforementioned wide open spaces, and never feels crowded. If you really go hunting, you can find all kinds of nooks and cranny's that probably 90% of the passengers will never find.   
 

I have spent ~40days on her and she is still my favorite. I even like the "Grape Hall" (which some find tacky), though some of the "vines" need maintenance. When I was on her a month ago, I met a man that was in the middle of a B2B2B2B for a total of 42 straight days and he was loving it. 
They did finally put in a Guy's and Blue Iguana, which made me happy. They added water slides, and they have the new star link internet (which worked really well in Alaska).Rumor has it, that they are adding a screen for dive in movies in the next drydock. 

 
The ONE thing that I really wish they'd update is the in-room televisions. They are small and old (at least they are flat screen). The movies they show are NOT on demand, but instead are on a preset rotation. Between movies, it shows the schedule of movies for the cruise, during which they play music that I find myself occasionally humming and CAN NOT GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  😛
 

Edited by thenexus2k
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1 hour ago, thenexus2k said:

We just got off the Miracle about a Month ago. It's still my favorite. Your experience will be based on your preferences. If you have cruised a bunch exclusively on Vista or newer class ships, and loved them, Miracle may be a tad of a shock. It has the aforementioned wide open spaces, and never feels crowded. If you really go hunting, you can find all kinds of nooks and cranny's that probably 90% of the passengers will never find.   
 

I have spent ~40days on her and she is still my favorite. I even like the "Grape Hall" (which some find tacky), though some of the "vines" need maintenance. When I was on her a month ago, I met a man that was in the middle of a B2B2B2B for a total of 42 straight days and he was loving it. 
They did finally put in a Guy's and Blue Iguana, which made me happy. They added water slides, and they have the new star link internet (which worked really well in Alaska).Rumor has it, that they are adding a screen for dive in movies in the next drydock. 

 
The ONE thing that I really wish they'd update is the in-room televisions. They are small and old (at least they are flat screen). The movies they show are NOT on demand, but instead are on a preset rotation. Between movies, it shows the schedule of movies for the cruise, during which they play music that I find myself occasionally humming and CAN NOT GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  😛
 

 

I think the chances of the Miracle getting the pool screen are extremely high. All three other Spirit class ships now have them, with the Legend just getting one. Legend and Pride dry docks turned out quite similar except the Legend's card room (some call it the library) was spared the conversion to the Adventures shop, which instead was located near the Pixels area. The Miracle and Spirit are both going into dry dock in Europe early next year to likely receive the same attention. Below is what Carnival listed for the Legend dry dock.

Screenshot 2024-07-11 9.56.44 AM.png

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Thanks for all these information!

Looking forward to sail on Carnival Miracle for our B2B from June 29-July 11, 2025 (British Isles and Iceland); and July 11-20, 2025 (Northern Europe). 

Still a year out, the July 11-20 Northern Europe sailing is sold out, except for the suite rooms.

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We’ve been on the Miracle 4 times with the 5th coming up in about 21/2 weeks.

Yes, it’s smaller. But heck, at one time it was the largest. 
I love the a spirit class atriums with the glass elevators going up and down. 
I love that they can cover one of the pools. 
I love the never crowded feeling. 
I love the size of the comedy club 

I love the size of the casino and also where it’s located (2nd deck just past the atrium)

I love the crew.
I could go on and on.

My dislikes? The TV’s are small but that might change when it’s in dry dock before you get on it.

Also the lack of movies or television stations for those times we’re lazy and just want to hang around in the cabin. But that’s a fleet wide problem.

The mini refrigerators are barely cool, definitely not cold!

And no outdoor movie screen although that too will probably change in dry dock.

Bottom line? It’s a dated but very beautiful ship and is our favorite!

 

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biggest issue i had was the buffet was rather limiting. the elevators are a little scary at times. the captain was no where to be found.

 

overall the staff was great, guys burger rocks, there was plenty of room everywhere, enjoyed the offerings at the mdr, casino was a little smoky but fun and i hope to go on the ship again one day.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/18/2024 at 6:24 PM, MedCruise_2022 said:

Thanks for all these information!

Looking forward to sail on Carnival Miracle for our B2B from June 29-July 11, 2025 (British Isles and Iceland); and July 11-20, 2025 (Northern Europe). 

Still a year out, the July 11-20 Northern Europe sailing is sold out, except for the suite rooms.

Yes. We were doing b2b also but June 20-July 11. We booked this in March & the ship was nearly full!

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34 minutes ago, CrusingNana said:

Yes. We were doing b2b also but June 20-July 11. We booked this in March & the ship was nearly full!


We will be together for the British Isles and Iceland sailing/June 29-July 11, 2025. Looking at the Iceland excursions offered by Carnival--they all seem so pricey haha!

Doing some "research"  on the Iceland ports we are visiting through "What's in Port" https://www.whatsinport.com/Iceland.html-to get some ideas.

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Hopefully their next dry dock addresses the plumbing issues this ship has. DEC 2022 Cabins flooded, restrooms on lido always plugged up and rarely working correctly or maybe 1 stall is working. We sayed in a vista suite on deck 4 back in 2017 and the vibration was so intense, the room steward had to remove all of the glassware from the suite because it just rattled 24/7.  Thank goodness we had cheers so we passed out instead of falling asleep peacefully on that trip.  lol I think I am done with the Miracle even though the novelty of that giant Frankenstein's Monster is always a good photo op! 

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I do admit I have not been on the Miracle recently, but she has been my favorite ship.  I was also afraid of the "gaudy" decor, but once I understood the Grapes went back to literature, I had a lot of fun with the different decor and appreciated it being unique and not the same ho hum I was used to. I absolutely LOVED the variouis sitting areas, quiet spaces, etc .   Unfortunatley, the Miracle moved to the West Coast and then elsewhere when I sail primarily out of the East Coast.    

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15 minutes ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

I do admit I have not been on the Miracle recently, but she has been my favorite ship.  I was also afraid of the "gaudy" decor, but once I understood the Grapes went back to literature, I had a lot of fun with the different decor and appreciated it being unique and not the same ho hum I was used to. I absolutely LOVED the variouis sitting areas, quiet spaces, etc .   Unfortunatley, the Miracle moved to the West Coast and then elsewhere when I sail primarily out of the East Coast.    

Miracle will be sailing out of Tampa from Nov 2025 to April 2026 so it is your chance from east coast at least for a 6 month spell.

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Just off Miracle last week. Totally agree that the layout works and it never feels crowded. Also agree that the buffet and dining options were limited. I was frustrated at that multiple times during our 11 days on her, especially towards the end. But, I always found something. She’s dusty and needs a deep clean. Smoke from the casino travels to the atrium. Being a smaller ship, there were many times that there was not an activity going on that we were interested in, which probably contributed to too much time in the casino lol. We bought some cards in port and played in public spaces like near the coffee shop and in alchemy when not open. Lots of nooks and crannies to hang out in. 

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